Up to now, four sites in India have drawn the pilgrimages of devotees to the Teaching of the Blessed Buddha. His birthplace, Kapilavastu, was a city situated in the north of India, on the foothills of the Himalayas, at the source of the river Gandak, and was destroyed even during the life of Buddha. The place of His enlightenment, Bodhigaya, where was Uruvela the grove, often mentioned, under the shade of which Gotama united all His attainments in illumination. The place of His first sermon, Sarnath (near Benares), where, according to the legend, Buddha set in motion the wheel of the Law, and which up to now shows traces of ruins of most ancient communities. The place of His death — Kushinagara (Nepal).
In the notes of the Chinese traveler Fa-hsien (392-414), who visited India, we find a description of the domain of Kapilavastu as well as of other revered spots.
Despite these facts, despite the ancient columns of King Acoka, there are those who love to make of the Buddha a myth, and to separate this high Teaching from life. The French writer Senart, in a special work, affirms that Buddha was a solar myth. But here also science has restored the human personality of the Teacher, Gotama Buddha. The urn with part of the ashes and bones of Buddha, found in Piprava (Nepalese Terai) bearing a date and inscription, as well as an historical urn with some relics of the Teacher, buried by the King Kanishka and found near Peshawar, bear definite testimony to the death of the first Teacher of the world community, Gotama Buddha.
One should not think that the life of Gotama Buddha was spent in universal acknowledgment and quiet. On the contrary, there are indications of slander and all kinds of obstacles, through which the Teacher, as a true fighter, only strengthened Himself, thus augmenting the significance of His achievement. Many incidents speak about the hostility which He encountered from ascetics and Brahmins, who hated Him. The former for His reproval of their fanaticism, the latter for refusing to admit their rights to social privileges and to the knowledge of truth, by right of birth.
To the first, He said: “If one could attain perfection and liberation from the bonds which tie man to the earth only through the renunciation of food and human conditions, then a horse or a cow would have reached it long since.”
To the second, “According to his deeds a man becomes a pariah; according to deeds he becomes a Brahmin. The fire kindled by a Brahmin, and the fire kindled by a Cudra have an equal flame, brightness and light. To what has your isolation brought you? In order to procure bread you go to the general market, and you value the coins from the purse of a Cudra. Your isolation may be termed merely plunder. And your sacred implements are merely instruments of deception.
“Are not the possessions of the rich Brahmin a desecration of the Divine Law? You consider the south as light and the north as darkness. A time will come when I shall come from the midnight and your light shall be extinguished. Even the birds fly north to bear their young. Even the gray geese know the value of earthly possession. But the Brahmin tries to fill his girdle with gold and to hoard his treasures under the threshold of his house. Brahmin, you lead a contemptible life and your end shall be pitiable. You shall be the first to be visited with destruction. If I go northward, then shall I also return from there.” (Taken from oral traditions of Buddhists in India.)
There are established cases when, after His discourses, a great many of the listeners deserted Him and the Blessed One said: “The seed has separated from the husk; the remaining community, strong in conviction, is established. It is well that the conceited ones have departed.”
Let us remember the episode when His nearest disciple and relative, Devadatta, conceived the thought of throwing a stone at the passing Teacher and even succeeded in injuring His toe.
Let us remember the cruel destiny which visited His clan and country through the vengeance of the neighboring King. The legends relate that Buddha, being far from the city with His beloved disciple Ananda at the time of the attack on His country, felt a severe headache and lay down on the ground, covering Himself with his robe, in order to hide from the only witness, the sorrow which overcame His stoical heart.
Neither was He exempt from physical ailments. Severe pains in His back are often mentioned and even His death was the result of poisoned food. All these details make His image verily human and close to us.
The word “Buddha” is not a name but indicates the state of a mind which has reached the highest point of development; literally translated, it means the “enlightened one”, or the one who possesses perfect knowledge and wisdom.
According to Pali Suttas, Buddha never claimed the omniscience which was attributed to Him by His disciples and followers: “Those who told thee, Vachcha, that the Teacher Gotama knows all, sees all, and asserts His possession of limitless powers of foresight and knowledge and says ‘In motion or immobility, in vigilance or sleep, always and in all omniscience dwells in me,’ those people do not say what I said, they accuse me despite all truth.” (Majjhima Nikaya, vol. 1, p. 482.)
The powers possessed by Buddha are not miraculous, because a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature. The supreme power of Buddha coordinates completely with the eternal order of things. His superhuman abilities are miraculous, inasmuch as the activities of a man must appear miraculous to the lower beings. To self-sacrificing heroes, to fighters for true knowledge, it is as natural to manifest their unusual achievements as for a bird to fly or for a fish to swim.
Buddha, according to a text, “is only the elder of men, differing from them no more than as the hatched chick differs from later chicks of the same hen”. Knowledge uplifted Him to a different order of beings, because the principle of differentiation lies in the depth of consciousness.
The humanness of Gotama Buddha is especially underlined in the most ancient writings, where the following expression is met: “Gotama Buddha, the most perfect of bipeds.”
The Pali Suttas contain many vivid definitions of the high qualities of Gotama, the Teacher, Who indicated the path. Let us mention some of them: “He is the leader of the caravan, the founder, the teacher, the incomparable trainer of men. Humanity was rolling as a cartwheel on the way to its destruction, 1ost without guide and protector. He indicated to it the right path.” — “He is the Lord of the wheel of Benevolent Law. He is the Lion of the Law.” (Cikshasamuccaya, p. 320.)
“He is a wondrous doctor; by compassionate means He cures dangerously sick people.” (Bodhicaryavatara, 7-24.)
“The venerable Gotama is a ploughman. His field is immortality.” (Sutta Nipata, v. 80.)
“He is the light of the world. He it is Who lifts one from the earth. He it is Who unveils that which is concealed. He it is Who carries the torch in the darkness, in order that those who have eyes may see; thus Gotama illumined His Teaching from all sides.”
“He is the Liberator. He liberates, because He Himself has been liberated.” His moral and spiritual perfections testify to the Truth of His Teaching and the power of His influence upon those who surrounded Him rested on the example of His personal labour.
Ancient writings always emphasize the vital applicability of His Teaching. Gotama did not avoid life, but took part in the daily life of the workers. He tried to direct them toward the Teaching, offered them participation in His communities, accepted their invitations and did not fear to visit courtesans and rajahs, the two centers of social life in the cities of India. He tried not to offend unnecessarily the traditional customs; furthermore He sought the possibility of giving them His Teaching, finding support for it in an especially revered tradition, not conflicting with the basic principles.
There was no abstraction in His Teaching. He never opposed the ideal of mystic and transcendental life to existing reality. He stressed the reality of all existing things and conditions for the current moment. And as His activities and thoughts were concerned mostly with the circumstances of life, He drew the contents of His speeches and parables out of daily life, using the simplest images and comparisons.
Starting from the concept of the parallel between nature and human life, Hindu thinkers believe that the manifestations of nature can explain many things to us in the manifestations of life. Using this method, Buddha, fortunately for His doctrine, retained the experience of this old tradition. “I shall show thee by comparison, because many rational people understood by comparison” — such was the usual formula of Buddha. And His simple, vital approach lent to His Teaching vividness and conviction.
His influence upon people was proportionate to His faith in Himself, in His power, and in His mission. He always adapted Himself to the circumstance of each pupil and listener, giving to them the most needed, in accordance with their understanding. He did not burden the disciples and listeners who were unprepared to absorb the highest knowledge, with intricate intellectual processes. Nor did he encourage those who sought abstract knowledge, without applying in life His highly ethical Teaching. Once, when one such questioner, named Malunkya, asked the Blessed One about the origin of all things — the Blessed One remained silent, because He considered the most important task lay in affirmation of the reality of our surroundings; this meant, to see things as they exist around us, and try first to perfect them, to prompt their evolution and not to waste time on intellectual speculation.
Certainly His knowledge was not limited to His Doctrine, but caution prompted by great wisdom made Him hesitant to divulge conceptions which, if misunderstood, might be disastrous.
“One day the Blessed One was staying at Kosambi in a sinsapa grove. And the Blessed One, taking a few sinsapa leaves in His hand, said to His disciples, ‘What think you, my disciples, what is more, these few leaves I hold in my hand, or the remaining leaves in the sinsapa grove above?’
“ ‘The leaves that the Blessed One holds in His hands are few in number; far more are the leaves in the sinsapa grove above.’
“ ‘Even so, disciples, what I have perceived and not communicated to you is far more than what I have communicated to you. And why, O disciples, have I not revealed this to you? Because it would be of no advantage to you, because it does not contribute to the higher life, because it does not lead to disgust with the world, to annihilation of all lust, to the ceasing of the transitory, to peace, to higher knowledge, to awakening, to Nirvana. Therefore I have not communicated it to you. And what have I communicated to you? That which is suffering, the source of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.’ ”
And so individual and practical was His Teaching in each separate case, that the tradition of three circles of the Teaching was established: for the chosen ones for the members of the Samgha and for all.
Founding His Samghas, Buddha strove to create the best conditions for those who had firmly determined to work upon the expansion of their consciousness for the attainment of higher knowledge. Then He sent them into life as teachers of life, as heralds of a world community.
The constant discipline of words, thoughts and deeds, demanded of His disciples and without which there can be no success on the way to perfection, is almost unattainable for those in the midst of the usual conditions of life, where a thousand outer circumstances and petty obligations constantly divert the striving one from his aim. But life among people united by the same aspiration, by distinct thoughts and habits, was a great aid, because it provided possibilities without loss of energy to develop in the desired direction.
Buddha — Who taught that in the whole Universe only correlatives exist; Who knew that nothing exists without cooperation; Who understood that the selfish and conceited one could not build the future because, by the cosmic law, he would be outside the current of life which carries the all existing towards perfection — patiently planted the seeds, establishing the cells of a community basis, foreseeing in the distant future the realisation of the great World Community.
Two rules were necessary for admission into the community: complete renunciation of personal possession, and moral purity. The other rules were concerned with the severe self-discipline and obligations to the community. Each one entering the community pronounced the formula: “I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in the Teaching, I take refuge in the Samgha, as the destroyers of my fear. The first with His Teachings, the second by its immutable truth, and the third by its example of the great law expounded by Buddha.”
The renunciation of property was austerely carried into life. Besides, the renunciation of property had to be shown not so much externally as accepted in consciousness.
Once a pupil asked the Blessed One, “How should one understand the fulfillment of the Covenant regarding the renunciation of property? One disciple renounced all things but his Teacher continued to reproach him for possession. Another remained surrounded by objects but did not merit reproach.”
“The feeling of possession is measured not by objects but by thoughts. One may have objects and still not be a possessor.”
Buddha always advised the possession of as few objects as possible in order not to devote too much time to them.
The entire life of the community was strictly disciplined, as the foundation of Buddha’s Teaching was iron self-discipline, in order to bridle uncontrolled feelings and thoughts and to develop indomitable will. Only when the disciple mastered his senses did the Teacher slightly raise the veil and assign a task. Only thereafter was the pupil admitted to the depth of knowledge. Out of such men, disciplined and trained by austere renunciation of everything personal, and consequently virile and fearless, did Gotama Buddha desire to create workers for the common welfare, creators of the people’s consciousness and forerunners of the world community.
Valor was cemented into the foundation of all achievements in the Teaching of Gotama. “There is no true compassion without valor; no self-discipline may be achieved without valor; patience is valor; one cannot fathom the depth of true knowledge and acquire the wisdom of an Arhat without valor.” Gotama demanded from His disciples complete annihilation of any sense of fear. Fearlessness of thought, fearlessness of action were ordained. The very name of Buddha Gotama, “Lion,” and His personal summons to walk through all obstacles like a rhinoceros or elephant, shows what depths of fearlessness He ordained. Hence, the Teaching of Gotama may first of all be called the Teaching of Fearlessness.
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